Sensible Vote on Marijuana

The Vermont House on May 3 took a politically courageous step by voting down legalized marijuana. According to the article you ran from VTDigger, Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, responded with, “So much for Vermont’s reputation as a liberal state.” I’m a liberal — even progressive on some issues — and I applaud the House’s decision. Being liberal doesn’t require being reckless.

In this case, the House was being appropriately cautious. House members chose to listen to the doctors, researchers, teachers, school counselors, addiction and mental health treatment specialists, prevention and public health specialists, business owners, police officers and just plain citizens who warned them that the retail marijuana system being proposed would cause more harm than good. They even turned down the opportunity to add home-grown marijuana to Vermont’s decriminalization law, realizing that the amendment as written was flawed and needed time for more deliberate consideration.

Instead, they proposed an advisory commission to track the (so far) less-then-ideal results of legalization in Colorado and Washington, and they started an education prevention program to reduce marijuana use by teens and young adults before any form of legalization could start — as suggested by the RAND Report.

When it comes to psychoactive drugs, everyone should be so liberal. To that end, I encourage Valley News readers to take the time to read The Real Dangers of Marijuana, by Rand Report co-author Jonathan Caulkins, in the online January edition of National Affairs. It will add to your knowledge and could very well change your attitude about marijuana.

Vermont already allows industrial hemp production and medical marijuana, and has decriminalized simple possession. It doesn’t need to be rushed into Big Marijuana. I don’t call what the House did conservative, I call it careful. You could even call it “The Vermont Way.”

Dean Whitlock

Thetford Center

The Media Favor Clinton

It appears that the Valley News has been bought by the mainstream media machine (see endless Washington Post pieces pontificating on the election with nary a mention of Sanders) and insults our Upper Valley community by continually denying coverage of Bernie Sanders’ extraordinary historic campaign all across the country.

Both New Hampshire and Vermont gave Bernie landslide victories in the primaries, as have states across the land, and more to come. We deserve the real news, and equal time for Bernie’s campaign.

Clinton is clinging to her superdelegates as insurance while she watches her unprecedented advantages in the beginning of the race (mainstream media outlets, massive war chest, endless Super PACs, DNC and establishment anointment, and name recognition) leave her unable to secure her “turn” as the Democratic nominee. Resorting to alleged dirty tricks at the polls in many of her “wins” only underscores her weakness as a candidate in comparison to Sanders’ continuing upward trend.

Sanders began with none of her advantages, an unknown Democratic Socialist from unknown Vermont, with no money, no Super PACs, no beholden media and establishment. He began with a lifelong fierce commitment to justice on all fronts, a stellar track record in public service, consistently fighting for the democratic ideals he champions on our behalf. Unlike Clinton, he has never sought to line his own pockets in any way. His small-donation fundraising is a historic revolution unto itself, and is spreading like wildfire to progressive democratic candidates down the ticket.

Despite what you print, and what the media want us to believe, Sanders’ campaign keeps growing, and will be proven at the convention to be the no-brainer choice to beat Trump and finally win “we the people” the changes we desperately need in governance. In spite of every attempt to shut us down, and ignore this campaign’s historic momentum, we now see that Reuters and all other national polls show Bernie with landslide numbers (12-20 percent) against Trump, while Clinton does much less well.

In the beginning of this race, many liked Sanders best, but supported Clinton as the “electable” candidate. This is now so clearly untrue as to be laughable, if it were not so dangerous.

If Bernie had been given anything approaching equal play in the media, he would have already won the nomination outright.

Georgina Forbes

Norwich

Dress Code Solution: Cover Up

Woodstock’s girls-only dress code solution: Ask the girls to wear the burka and separate boys from girls. And so that girls do not feel segregated, prohibit boys from wearing pants whose waistline falls to mid-thighs, as they are offending.

Therese Perin-Deville

Wilder